How do businesses better prepare their defences?

As more incidents are reported and bigger brands see their data stores being breached, cybersecurity has gone from the problem that won’t go away to become a discussion of brand confidence and cyber skills shortage.

So how do businesses better prepare their defences – for what to do on that day when the worst occurs? How do you find the right tech talent when many skills are seeing 0% unemployment rates? We’re talking to two leaders in the areas of cybersecurity and tech skills to give us their insights on the best path forward.

Guests:

• Scarlett McDermott – Chief Technology Officer, With You With Me

• Kris Lovejoy – Global Security and Resilience Leader, Kyndryl

Show notes:

Recent months (September-October 2022) in Australia saw some of the highest profile security breaches against companies that hold deeply personal information about their customers. In this podcast we explore questions of what is at stake for companies when it comes to managing their security in order to protect customer data – and to respond effectively should the worst occur.

What does it mean to place security and resilience within the same category for business? Risks are more than just a question of what is stolen. With new government penalties and significant brand reputation damage at stake, we look at why security must become fully integrated into the core business continuity system.

We also explore questions of building the right levels of skills within the workplace and why we need to look beyond IT degrees if we are to meet the skills shortage head on. With many different kinds of jobs in cybersecurity, how do we build the right skill response and cultural response to ensure we have the right security mindset across an organisation.

By searching for the right IT skills through new avenues of recruitment, we also create opportunities for more diverse and effective teams as new ways of thinking enter our corporate technology teams.

Read more:

• ‘A perfect storm’: why solving the cybersecurity crisis is critical to the future of business

• Cybercrime in Australia has been on the rise for years

• Cyber Skills shortage to hit 30,000 in four years

Links:

• WithYouWithMe

Credits:

The Tech Pulse Podcast is produced by Guardian Labs Australia

• Host: Seamus Byrne

• Guardian Labs producers: Alison Tanudisastro and Joady Weatherup

• Executive producer and Guardian Labs head of content: Justine O’Donnell

• Sound editor: Mellany Chun